Or - Why don't you make like a tree and leave...
Oh, this is gonna be a long one so buckle your seat belts...it's gonna be a bumpy ride.
Where to start? It's almost Autumn and the leaves are beginning to transition from the vibrant and glorious green of Spring and Summer to the colorful and beautiful colors of Autumn before Winter comes in and knocks them all off.
Hahahaha, it's a colorful time of year. Carol and I had a blast last October seeing all the Fall colors and we've been looking forward to seeing it all again. Especially at Coulon Park...they have a tree-lined drive into the park that was great last year.
So, knowing how great it was last year, we decided to get an early start and drive out to the park today. Kinda get it at the beginning as it were.
Yeah, we're wild and crazy like that.
You're gonna see a lot of Coulon Park here. A lot!!
And it will come as no surprise that we got a lot of flowers along the way. Like these...
You really can't get this kind of color anywhere else but in Nature. Some hydrangea.
And, as you already knew, I would also be getting some pictures of the wild life. Not mine, mind you, but, again, Nature's.
Like these ducks who laughingly thought I had some food to give them.
But the Canada Geese were unmoved by my presence. I don't know how but they pretty much ignored me.
Go ahead, I'll wait.
A little personal hygiene.
And then, adios, y'all.
I was lucky to catch the last two as they...
...flew the coop.
Hahahaha, that was rich.
And now from the beauty of Canada Geese to...this.
A creepy and disgusting spider. But this guy was humongus!! The biggest spider I've seen in Washington. And, yeah, they get more disgusting the bigger they get.
And oh, yeah, they're even more disgusting when they're eating their lunch.
Uh, ugh!!
Now let's move on to more pleasant things.
They've discovered a new plant in Coulon Park...
...they're calling them Berries Obama.
Get it?
Hahahahaha...
One of the pavilions by the Ivar's on Lake Washington. Just across from it, over the top of the woman in the red sweater is the beach part of Coulon Park...where they allow swimming with the Life Guards from Hell...and their stupid megaphones.
The other end of the pavilion...there's the floating picnic area where they tossed Ev's ashes and the flowers for Adrienne.
One of the floating picnic areas. It really is a great park.
Another shot of the breaker with the Boeing Plant in the background. One of the local phenomena is during lunch the Boeing employees take off on walks around the park and around The Landing. You can always tell Boeing employees...they set a determined pace and always have an ID card swinging on a lanyard around their neck. Always.
And what would a visit to Coulon Park be without a picture of Ivar's Seafood Bar. Honestly, I don't know how they stay in business year after year. It's just not that great a location for the walk-in trade, y'know.
Carol, no conspiracy nut she, thinks it might be a front for drug smugglers bringing in drugs from across the sea. However, she does admit it might be they stay open because of the weekend trade and it's the only Ivar's in the Renton area.
Hmmmmm, might be.
Don't worry, we'll get to the trees in a minute. We're still enjoying Mother Nature and...
...a cormorant.
In fact, we saw several of them scattered amongst the seagulls.
But this fellow was standing up on a tall piling drying out his wings in the afternoon breeze.
Lucky shot...I was shooting for the cormorant on the log when these two guys flew into the scene. Actually, I saw the one in front fly across as I was snapping the picture and I hoped that I had caught him. The second one, the guy on the far right just coming into the frame was a bonus. I never saw him and was pleasantly surprised when he appeared in the picture.
The Vanishing Middle Class still have their toys...and they still tease me with them. Some sailing craft on the private side of the lake.
OK, from here on it is all flowers and trees. As promised, you'll get to see the beginnings of the Fall Foliage Explosion.
Although, this year, I don't think it will be as vibrant or bold as last year. It was a long and hot summer with much less rainfall than normal. We think the trees are thinner, fewer leaves, than last year. And it's suppose to be a milder winter than normal, too.
The small bridge back to the lake shore from the floating picnic areas.
They've done such a great job landscaping this park. The facilities are well-constructed and good looking, too.
And we found some more clover...these are, oddly enough, called "Big Head Clover".
Go figure.
They just ain't that big.
And the leaves...
And some more Obama's...right after they returned from a DNC Dinner with the Original Berry.
Hahaha, get it? They sucked them dry of all their money!!!
Hahaha, great wit and topical humor, too!!
You can see the beginnings of the seasonal change here. It's gonna be a color riot in a short while.
Along the drive into the park. The rail line is just behind these trees.
Things are moving along a little faster here.
Close-up!! I have no idea of what these are but when you get up close to them, they're really kinda unique.
Along the drive into the park. The train tracks are to the left with the lake to the right.
In a short while this drive will be alive with the colors of Autumn!! It'll be a riot!!
Like these. Look it those colors!!
Coulon Park Selfie!!
Haha, did you honestly think you'd get through all this without at least one selfie!?!?!
Silly you!!!
A close up of the the moss growing on the ground under the trees.
Carol noticed that most of the weeds/flowers along the tracks were yellow. Like these. I was shooting through the chain-link fence for this picture.
And, you know, they were mostly yellow.
Near the park entrance. You're going to see these trees in another blog real soon.
There had been a small amount of rain in the morning and there was still some moisture left. Like here.
Some of the early turners.
There were some trees where just patches of the leaves on the tree were turning and the rest of the tree leaves were still green. Like this one.
Those Autumn leaves...
Boysenberries. This year, for the first time in my life, I picked boysenberries from the vine and ate them.
Didn't like 'em, but I ate 'em!!
First time ever!!
Dandelions...
Along the lake by the boat launch.
OK, Michelle!! I figured out what The Rays really stands for!!
I've been puzzling over this for years now!!
And, to show you how dedicated I am to your happiness, I even picked up Coke bottle caps off the ground for you guys.
No, no thanks needed.
You're welcome.
All good things must come to an end, eventually.
No!! Not this blog, just our visit to the park.
Silly person.
Then, after the park, we went to downtown Renton to walk around, visit the Comic Store and see what was up.
The good folks of Renton have followed Seattle's lead, sort of, and have flower pots set out along the sidewalks. Nice touch.
Pretty nice, eh!?!
We stopped into an Antique Shop and looked around.
Artsy-Fartsy Alert!!
I got this detail from an old Royal typewriter. Hahaha, I can still remember typing on these beasts, well, a newer version of this old one. Which is, still, a pretty old typewriter thought not as old as this.
Here she is. Oh, in B&W, too!!
There's a certain cachet to a document typed out on a manual typewriter. You had to get everything right the first time. Hahaha, correcting it was a bear. Ya gotta respect someone who sat in front of a monster like this each day and put out some good copy.
OK, looking at this keyboard (is that the right term for the keys?), can you see something sorta out of place? Something missing?
I'll tell you in a minute but go ahead and look and see if you can spot it. I just noticed it myself as I was writing this.
A detail of the logo!!
Remember the Smith Tower? My favorite tower in Seattle? The guy that built it was the same Smith as the guy who started this typewriter business. Here's a real old version...they later become known as Smith-Corona Typewriters.
OK, did you figure out what was missing on that keyboard? No?
Go back and try and find the #1.
It isn't there. I figure they just used a lower case 'L' whenever they needed a '1'. Space saver, eh?
I know you looked at the Smith below and, yes, it does have a #1 key. Although I don't know what the purpose is of the keys above the numbers.
Got this detail from a painting(?) in the Antique Shop. Pretty nice, eh? What do you think? Pastels? Crayons?
Haha, I know it's not crayons.
It isn't, is it?
Then we saw this and neither of us have any idea, other than as a toy, for what this covered wagon could be used for.
Any ideas?
Davy, Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier...
I've developed an interest in reading some of the old books. The stilted language, the heroic deeds, the stellar character of the protagonists; it's all such a huge change from what you get today with the cynicism, moral fallacy and sex, sex, sex.
It was all so clearer back then, at least in literature. Nowadays, it has to be conflicted, confused and full of personal angst!! Sometimes I think I'd like it to be a bit clearer and cleaner...at least in literature.
Unfortunately, I can't afford them. This one was $21.
And, look it!!
A book about Boy Scouts adventures!!
Ah, if I had the money.
Plus wanting to read these old treasures, I am enjoying the cover art, too.
The Battleship Boys!! This would be even cooler than being Circus Boy!!
Hahaha,
So what, Micky Dolentz!! You get to ride on a elephant but do you get to fire a cannon!?!?!
Haha, I thought not!!
And it was a series!!
What boy wouldn't want to run away and join the Navy and have grand adventures!?!
Talking about cover art...this one is good.
Hmmmm, just when did they invent LSD? Just wondering.
I can see them, Edith and her buds, sitting around passing a blunt back and forth, and Edith says "Yeah, and then Bunnikins-Bunnie meets this dude...oh, wow, the Moon King, Man!! Can you dig it!?!"
Interesting side note, in the United States, Marijuana was not prohibited out-right until the 1920s. By the mid-1930s, Cannabis was regulated as a drug in every state.
Getting back to the less fantastical, here are the Boy Scouts' again...marching on to Victory. They had a series of Boy Scouts' Adventures, too.
Look at 'em, using his semaphore skills.
Then back to neat stories and great cover art. I have no idea if this is a fact-filled informative and educational book or a wild and wooly (Hahaha, that was intended!!) story about heroic animals in the wild.
The cover, however, is kick-butt!!
Lassie was big, Rin Tin Tin was big and then we got this...A Dog of Flanders.
Flanders!?! Really!?!
No wonder it flopped.
And I bought this one. It was just $2 so it fit my budget.
This guy, Charles P. Everitt was born in 1871 and left his father's farm in 1890 looking for something else to do beside farming. He stumbled into rare books and became, as he called himself, a Treasure Hunter. He searched for rare books during the great days of Americana, from the 1890s to the 1940s. He details his adventures, hits and misses and life looking for and finding rare books.
I'm looking forward to reading it.
And from the scholarly and dignified Charles P. Everitt, we move on to Cotton Comes to Harlem.
Not exactly great literature but a good insight into the turbulent 70s. I'm sure Mr. Everitt would be aghast, simply aghast, at what his world had become.
And I saw this...The Mammoth Cyclopaedia, Volume II
From 1880. Only .50 Cents.
Chock full of good stuff. Not so much on the spelling but I'm sure everything else was just spot-on.
It'd be fun to go through that and learn about the world back in 1880. A damn sight different than the one we currently live in, right?
And whoever designed this book cover must have hung around with Edith, right!?!
Right!!
Then, in the same store, they had these banks.
Yeah, right!!
And it was an odd day for money.
We stopped by The Dollar Tree for some candy and sodas and I got this .50 Cent piece back as change. You just don't see half-dollars used as change these days. Like never.
OK, I was pleasantly surprised and decided I'd put it with my other half-dollars.
Then, later, I bought the book, The Adventures of a Treasure Hunter and gave the woman a $5 bill for the $2 purchase.
She gave me two bills back as change and I thought she was short-changing me until I looked at the bills. She had given me this Two-Dollar Bill!!
What the Heck!?!
A two-dollar bill AND a half-dollar both in one day!!
Wild!!
(I know, slow down Speed Racer!! How do I keep up this wild and crazy life!!)
Anyway, it was odd to get the two on the same day.
So that was it.
We got to enjoy Coulon Park and we've already made plans to go back in a couple of days so we can enjoy the fall foliage. We got some candy and soda and some odd money along the way as well as an unusual old book for me.
I'd say it was a Win-Win-Win kinda day.
Life is, y'know, good!!
Hooah!!
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